Herding Cats

The Sunday Giro, on Chef Highway a couple of miles before the Goodyear Sign sprint.

After a rained-out Saturday and a "close but not quite" Tulane football game, I got home in time to upload the results from the cyclocross race in Jackson and then rushed out to log a few miles on the levee before sunset. By then, the wind was starting to pick up and the temperature starting to fall, and although I didn't ride particularly hard, the combination of impending darkness and northerly wind at least kept me from turning it into a sightseeing sojourn as sometimes happens with these kinds of unplanned rides.

May repaint that valve cover soon just for
appearances sake.

Earlier in the day I'd spent a bit of time on the GT-6. I'd already re-installed the cleaned-up carbs and replaced a leaking section of heater hose. This time I pulled each of the spark plugs and injected a little bit of Mystery Oil into the cylinders to perhaps loosen up any stuck piston rings that hadn't moved in twenty years or so. I think that my next move will be to pull the gas tank and clean it out, checking to see if that fiberglass patch I made a few decades ago is still good. Then maybe a fresh fuel filter before putting some gasoline in the tank, priming the fuel pump, etc. If all that goes OK, then it might be time to spring for a battery (and battery charger most likely) and see if the starter solenoid and motor work. One thing at a time.

Tulane's last home game of the season.

By Sunday the temperature was back down to the upper 40s, but the sky was clear and the wind not so bad as I rode out to Starbucks for the Giro Ride. By the time we rolled out at 7 a.m. sharp, we had a pretty big group, so I was expecting it to get fast. It didn't turn out quite like I'd expected, though. Somewhere on Hayne, Jaden attacked and one or two went with him, but the rest of the group didn't seem too interested in making the necessary effort to chase it. I'm not sure if they were still out there or not by the time we all got to Chef Highway, but it wasn't long after that that a gap started to open up a couple of riders ahead of me. Sensing the danger a few riders came flying by from behind to bridge up, but surprisingly most of the rest of the group, including me, just kind of watched, hoping I guess, that somehow the gap would close all on its own.

Eventually we got a rather flaky paceline going, but trying to get this group to ride a steady, smooth paceline turned out to be like herding cats, which is to say it was a dismal failure. We'd get three of four riders taking their pulls, then nobody would come through and the pace would drop back down from 25 to 22. Predictably, that would result in someone blasting up the side or going to the front at 26, which would just succeed in opening more gaps, and then the pace would fall again. I've no doubt that if everyone had just ridden a steady paceline at 24-25 mph we would have caught the group pretty easily. Anyway, it was kind of frustrating and since most of them didn't seem to understand the concept, here's a nice little video about how this paceline stuff is supposed to work.

Things settled down a lot for the return trip, so that was pretty uneventful and a bit slower than it really should have been. It's all pretty typical for this time of year, though. A lot of riders are taking it easy right now, which is understandable I guess. For some reason my legs were a little sore on Sunday, so I wasn't really pushing things, myself.

Pothole anniversary coming up this week!

When I got home after the Giro I had a notification from Garmin Connect that my chain had reached the 2,500 mile mark. Since I'd already secured a new chain, I went ahead and replaced it a couple hundred miles sooner than usual. I'm sure there will be some skipping on my training wheel cassette, though. I think that's at least the 4th chain that cassette's been through. I did notice an occasional skip on my Monday recovery ride, but I wouldn't expect to find out how bad it really is until I do a harder ride with some accelerations in various gears. Often, it there's just a slight amount of skipping, the new chain will wear in the old cassette a bit after a couple hundred miles and everything will be fine. We'll see. Meanwhile, the anniversary of the Neron/Pine pothole is rapidly approaching in just four days! That will actually make two full years, less the 4 days between the first water main break and the second water main break, since we've had a paved street in front of the house. And the Mayor thought I was going to vote for another 3 mills of property tax on top of the huge increases we've seen already?  Are ya' kiddin?

So I've been taking my "baby dose" of generic Lipitor for a week now with no noticeable side effects, so I guess that's a good thing. I did watch an interesting documentary type video on Netflix that Jaden mentioned - "The Game Changers" - that was mainly about the benefits of a plant-based diet. While I could see myself going a bit more Vegan than I am now, I don't see myself eliminating all animal-based foods, mainly for practical/availability reasons. Fortunately, wine is totally plant-based, so at least there's that. Anyway, there were some interesting things about the video with respect to the effects, if any, of plant-based diets on athletic performance. Granted, they were probably cherry-picked, but still somewhat convincing.

Dawn Patrol

It's been a little chilly in the mornings this week, but really not what you would call "cold." On Tuesday we had a good group for the 6:00 a.m. Dawn Patrol on the levee with the temperature hovering around the high 40s. For a change, there was no reason to cut the ride short, and although we lost a few riders who had to turn back early, we still had four doing the whole ride, and picked up a couple more along the way. This time of year it's still a bit dark when I ride out from the house to meet the group, but within half an hour I've switched my headlight to its lowest setting, mainly just to give a little extra warning to anyone coming the other way. By the time we're halfway out to Destrehan the sun is over the horizon and the temperature starts to rise. It's really kind of a good time of year for riding around here, even if you have to start before sunrise. A month from now it won't be quite so nice. It will be darker for more of the ride and the temperature will often be a bit colder. Even so, the weather is always quite variable in November and December.

This morning it was around 52° when I rolled out of the house wearing substantially less than I'd worn the prior few days. The knickers are perfect for this kind of weather when it's warm enough to leave the shoe-covers, skull caps, and thermal base layers at home. No doubt there were riders at the WeMoRi this morning in basically summer kits. As usual, I met the group on Marconi, heading for the City Park loop, and although the pace was brisk, it wasn't a particularly fast WeMoRi today. We came around the corner at City Park Avenue and Marconi onto the freshly re-paved left lane - a huge improvement over the minefield we've been riding over for years. On the other hand, since they are putting in a 2-way bike lane, plus a parking lane, and leaving just one car lane against the median, the group rides are going to be forced into the car lane, which means we'll be holding up traffic from City Park Avenue to the underpass. I'm sure the people who plan these bike lanes never think about group training rides, but I'm also sure that everyone on the group training ride would be much happier if they'd just re-paved the street and left both car lanes like they were. A 2-way bike lane in-between parked cars and the curb, along with concrete road furniture, makes it extremely unsafe for a group to use the bike lane, and having to take the one remaining car lane is sure to piss off cars stuck behind the group. Anyway, since the ride wasn't quite as hard as usual, there were a lot of people thinking they'd take a shot at the final sprint for Shelter #1, so I ended up blocked behind a few people and never really got to sprint. Guess I should have gotten to the front earlier.

Mignon texted me this morning to say she'd broken a collarbone while riding her mountain bike on the levee. She in the grass, going around some pedestrians and dog-walkers, and as she was heading back up the levee to get back onto the bike path she hit a little divot in the grass that landed her on the ground when her gears skipped. So another new member for the Collarbone Club.

It should be warmer for Thursday and Friday before the next cold front comes through some time Saturday. Right now it's looking like rain for Saturday morning, but I'm not going to bank on that quite yet.

Sunshine and the 40s

Just part of the Saturday Giro Ride group heading out along Lakeshore Drive

As often happens down here after a cold front comes through, and I mean all the way through, the weather last weekend was awesome, assuming you include riding in full tights and baselayers and gloves and long-sleeve jerseys in your definition of Awesome. It seems like most of the prior week, along with the weekend, started out at 45-47°F, the only variable being the wind speed. While those conditions might well be defined as "balmy" by Minnesotans, around here it's simply described as "cold," at least until it gets down below 45° in which case it's described as "freezing." If and when it actually gets down to actual freezing, as in 0°C, it's not described as anything because everyone is running around trying to protect their 100-year-old fully exposed galvanized plumbing and is otherwise incapable of speaking anyway since they don't actually have any clothing suitable for such Arctic conditions.

Matt's new Colnago is very pretty. We'll see how long
the white handlebar tape lasts, though.

Anyway, I pulled on the long tights and fuzzy baselayer and everything and headed out Saturday morning for the Giro Ride wondering how many riders would use the temperature as a convenient excuse to torture themselves on Zwift in the comfort of their own basements or garages or living rooms. As usual, I was one of the first to arrive at Starbucks, so I sat inside as a few of the other early regulars wandered in, sipping my coffee, and occasionally glancing out the door to make sure my bike was still there. When I finally stepped outside at 6:58 am I was rather surprised to see such a large crowd ready to ride. I would guess we had around 45 riders in the group as we rolled out along scenic Lakeshore Drive under a clear blue sky. I shivered a bit as I noticed a few riders with bare knees and minimal fuzzy clothing, but hey, to each his own. I'd much rather come home with pockets stuffed with clothes than be cold for the first half hour of a ride, but that's just me.

Caught by the Seabrook drawbridge just as we were sprinting to the top.

It being officially Winter, at least in my book, and me being me, which is to say that I'm now officially in winter training mode, which is also to say that I plan to enjoy the month of November by hanging out at the warmer, less windy end of the paceline, I found a nice comfy spot toward the back as the pace ramped up along Hayne Boulevard, where, surprisingly, the speed remained mostly moderate. That all changed after we made the right turn at the end of Hayne. Next thing I know, I'm pushing 32 and 33 mph just to stay in contact. Of course, it wasn't as bad as it might seem since I was generally so far from the front of the long string of riders that I'd have needed binoculars, or cataract surgery, to see who was actually up there inflicting the pain. It didn't last all that long, though, and the ride down Chef Highway, with it's brand new silky-smooth asphalt, was nice, even if there was a bit of an accordion effect going on nearer the back. Somehow, though, the relatively brief foray into the 30s must have caused a split somewhere because we were missing a few riders by the time we arrived at the Venetian Isles turnaround. The ride back was pretty standard - a surge toward the end of Chef, and then a pretty hard effort from bridge to bridge at the end of Hayne. Sunday's ride was remarkably similar. At any rate, it was so nice to be out in the sunshine in a nice sized group on a nice weekend in November.

Back at home, Entergy apparently came by on Friday and changed out our electric meter for one of the new "smart" electric meters that they say will do great things for me but in reality just makes it easier for them to read the meter without getting out of the truck. Hopefully they didn't screw up the readings when they swapped it out. On Saturday I finally went over to the local auto parts store to get some more carburetor cleaner, along with new wiper blades and windshield washer fluid for the Volvo. So on Sunday I finally put carb #2 back together and re-installed it on the old GT-6, also replacing the leaky heater hose and topping up the coolant. I think that next I'll pull the plugs and put a little Mystery Oil into each cylinder. Then I'll see if I can pull and clean out the gas tank, put a couple of gallons of gas in it, and check the fuel pump that may or may not be functional. Baby steps...

This morning it was still like 47°F and since I was planning a really easy recovery ride I should have dressed a little more warmly than I did. On my way back I ran into Kaitlyn who apparently didn't have anyone else show up for the TUCA Monday morning ride, so she turned around and we rode back together until I split off for a quick cup of coffee at Z'otz. By then the sun was starting to warm things up a bit. Tomorrow morning should be around 50°F and then the next few mornings will be in the 52-60°F range until the next cold front shows up on Saturday.

This afternoon I have a conference with a surgeon about my gall bladder which hasn't been causing me any real problems lately. This morning I started taking Atorvastatin, aka Lipitor, because my total cholesterol was borderline high on the one and only such lipid panel I've ever had. It seems a little sketchy to be taking something that interferes with such an important pathway that includes response to training, and has side effects that include muscle pain, and hemorrhagic stroke, among others, and continuing for a year before checking to see if it's actually working. Basically the only feedback I can expect from this are the negative side-effects, so I guess I'll see how that goes. 

Instant Winter

I didn't ride today. I could have, of course, but instead I chose to take the day off from riding, not because I wanted to, but because some days it's just not such a good idea. Today was one of those days. After the spectacular Fall weather we had last Sunday for the Varsity to Varsity ride, Tuesday morning was a bit of a punch in the face. This was the first really cold front of the season. Of course, I still woke up at 5:25 and checked the weather. The forecast had been for cold, rain, and wind, which is never a good combination when you're on the bike, and I'd been fully expecting it to be raining. It wasn't. I sat there staring at the weather radar that was showing some light rain approaching (which never actually arrived) and briefly contemplated breaking out the rain bike. Then I noticed the wind. 33 mph steady with gusts at 41. Temperature at 43 degrees. Relative humidity at 82%. Overcast with a 50% chance of rain. Yesterday I got both influenza and pneumonia vaccines, the latter of which left me with a pretty sore deltoid. So many reasons not to ride! Tomorrow will be even colder with a predicted low at WeMoRi time of 32 and a 10 mph north wind, but at least there is zero chance of rain. I have the clothes to handle that, assuming I can find them. Will I ride? 

The suspense is killing me......

Long Flat Day along the River

Somewhere past the Spillway with Julia and Dustin

Sunday was the 9th almost-annual Varsity to Varsity ride for the LSU and Tulane cycling clubs. This year there were only four Tulane riders doing the whole thing, so I was spared the complication of driving people to Baton Rouge, driving back to NOLA, and then riding upriver to meet the group. That provided a couple of nice benefits. For one, it was probably fifteen degrees warmer by the time I rolled out of the house at 8:08 am wearing just my sunscreen arm-warmers and a wind-front base layer that ended up in my pocket for the return trip. For another, I didn't need to get up at 5:30 am and could actually eat something for breakfast. Joining me for the out-and-back version of V2V this year would be Dustin and Julia who I planned to meet somewhere along the levee bike path.

Rest stop where we met up

I ended up leaving home a bit earlier than I'd planned since I basically didn't know what to do with myself on a nice sunny Sunday morning when I'd normally have been on the bike by 6:10 am. Dustin and Julia were planning on leaving from Headquarters at 200 Broadway at 8:30. I rode easy out to the levee and then rode a mile or two upriver to the Corps of Engineers building before turning around and starting upriver, which put me just a few minutes ahead of them. None of us was in a hurry, so I was all the way to St. Rose before they came up on me. We had a clear blue sky and a slight tailwind, so it was easy going at a steady conversational pace of around 18 mph.

The group scattered along the spillway road on the way back because of the off-road sections - some rode, some walked

There were a few places along the Spillway road, which was technically closed, that had been washed out when the spillway was open earlier in the year, so we didn't really know what to expect when we rode around the barricades. As it turned out, there were just a couple of places where the asphalt was completely washed out, but in both cases vehicles had created a somewhat sandy bypass around them - basically just a bit of off-road dirt riding - that wasn't too bad except for a couple of spots where the sand was deep. Once back on River Road, upriver of the spillway, we continued on, looking for a place where we could get onto the levee bike path three miles later. That got us a nice 7 miles or so on the bike path and through the LaPlace area before it ended and we were back on River Road.

Back on the levee path

I was glad I'd brought my bright rear blinky light for the next stretch because, even though it was a Sunday morning, there was a bit of traffic and there are no shoulders on River Road. The generally east wind had started to pick up a bit, so our speed did as well along here as we cruised under the Gramercy bridge, past Lutcher, and then, a few miles later, found the group at one of their planned rest stops - the one where there used to be a bunch of Beagles in a big enclosure. Amazingly, this was exactly the same place where I'd met the group a couple of years ago - 52 miles upriver from Audubon Park.

Pizza!

After a banana, a couple of chocolate-chip cookies, and a handful of gummy bears, the group headed out downriver and we re-traced our ride. The wind, which had been practically non-existent when we started, had started to pick up a little bit, but it never got to be very bad. As always seems to happen, once we were past the spillway and back onto the levee bike path, a few riders were starting to feel the miles, which led to some gaps and a couple of slow-downs to regroup. Fortunately we were able to keep everyone together all the way to the end this year, including the guy who rode the entire thing in Vans shoes, flat pedals, and gym shorts. I'm thinking he had some kind of riding short underneath because I didn't see any blood flowing down his legs at the end.

At Varsity Sports in NOLA

At Varsity Sports on Magazine Street we had the traditional pizza, and eventually took a group photo on the front porch before everyone headed back to wherever they'd come from. It was a long but enjoyable 115 mile day for me. Since the pace was always quite civilized, my legs were none the worse for wear. I couldn't say the same about my neck, back and crotch. Sometimes, going slowly for a long time can hurt just as much as going fast for a shorter time - just in different places.

Colder Air and Long Shadows

It was a very busy night on Neron Place

Well last week was a total write-off for me. Wednesday and Thursday mornings were rainy, and then on Friday I had to be over at the uptown campus early for some Homecoming volunteer assignments. By the time I left there in the early afternoon I was feeling kind of bad. My stomach had been very unhappy all morning, and I felt like I might be running a low-grade fever, so I just headed home.

We'd had a busy Halloween night on Thursday but I couldn't really attribute how I was feeling to that. Candy  had been home all day Friday (over-)preparing for our annual Halloween party for the neighbors, cooking gumbo, making cookies and cupcakes, picking up stuff from Whole Foods catering, etc., so although I would have liked to have climbed under the covers under the circumstances, there was still much to do. For one thing, the car was showing low air pressure in one of the tires, and just that morning one of the headlights had burned out. So I checked all of the tires, all of which were at least 5 psi low, got them all up to spec, then ran over to the auto parts store for a couple of new headlight bulbs, installed those, topped up the coolant that was just a bit low, and foolishly thought I might be able to lie down for a while to see if I'd recover. That's when she asked me to pick up ice for the drinks. When I got home from that we discovered that two of our ice chests were missing, so I had to go out and buy another one to fill with ice and Rogue Dead Guy Ale.

Reggie, Andrea, and Dennis at Swamp Otter on Sunday

By the time it was party time I was not feeling well at all. I made a few brief appearances but ended up in bed with an ache in my upper right abdomen, a little nausea, and I think a mild fever. I hadn't eaten much of anything all day.

By Saturday morning I was starting to wonder if it was something serious, so we made a trip over to the ER for a "calculus of gallbladder without cholecystitis without obstruction" diagnosis with otherwise normal ultrasound and x-ray and blood work, and referral to an internal medicine doctor and general surgeon. To be more specific, the pathologist said cholelithiasis without evidence of cholecystitis with three tiny nonmobile echogenic foci at the gallbladder neck and a single mobile 0.6 cm stone. Fortunately, by then I was feeling considerably better in general. Later that afternoon I walked over to Tulane Stadium to watch the second half of the Homecoming football game where Tulane pulled off a victory despite at least a hundred yards of penalties that included two called-back touchdowns.

Sunday we finally, at long last, set the clocks back to standard time, which made it so very much better when I had to load up the car and head over to Chalmette to officiate the Swamp Otter cyclocross race. The weather was pretty nice - a little chilly and windy, but with a nice blue sky. The races went pretty well since field sizes were generally small and manageable, so I was back home by 3:30 or 4:00. I might have tried to get out for a late afternoon ride, but figured I'd wait until Monday under the circumstances.

Nice to see the sun in the morning again!

Monday morning the temperature was around 50F, and since I was planning on a nice easy ride, I dug out a pair of knickers and a long-sleeve jersey and wind vest for the first time this Fall. I was definitely not willing to be cold for my first ride in five days. The legs felt fresh, of course, so it was a nice ride. I turned around with a few of the Tulane riders and got a few bonus miles before heading back down Oak Street through the remnants of Sunday's Po-Boy Festival. It was great to be able to go out to ride at 6 am without it being pitch dark for another hour. As it was, I used my lights just to get from home to the levee. By then the sun was almost over the horizon. Looking forward, we have the Varsity to Varsity ride scheduled for Sunday and I expect I'll do what I usually do for that, which is to shuttle riders up to Baton Rouge, and then ride from New Orleans upriver until I run into them on their way back. The only complication this year will be the Spillway road which is still closed and showing no signs of being repaired any time soon. I think we can get through there anyway with a little walking where the asphalt is washed out, but there's always the option of taking the Airline bridge if necessary.

So it's late afternoon right now and feeling even later with the sun already pretty low in the sky. I put the old headlight on the commuter this morning before riding in to work. It will probably be a few more weeks before it's really essential for the ride home, but what the heck. It's looking like morning temperatures in the mid-upper 50s with maybe a morning or two dipping down to the upper 40s for the next week or two. Probably won't need to pull out the full tights and winter jacket for a while.